To Do or Die (A Jump Universe Novel) Read online

  And it was fast going out. Air spewed from his mouth and ass. He found himself pissing and not all the stuff heading out his rear was gas.

  My suit’s going to be a mess.

  But now was no time to be squeamish. His hands were free, and Mary was holding his helmet over his head. He touched the obelisk.

  Damn that thing is cold. It was, but not so cold that it froze his hands to it.

  He rested his head on the thing.

  Immediately, he got the worst brain freeze of his life.

  Everything is fine, he thought. There is no threat to you. Go back to sleep.

  Over and over he repeated the same message.

  At first, he felt agitation. It was hard to separate what he was feeling from the obelisk from the agony that was starting to sweep through his own flesh and blood.

  It was a struggle to keep the pain out of his thoughts, but that was what he had to do. Years of hard discipline bent his flesh to his will.

  Slowly, the agitation from the station settled down. Almost, Ray could hear a lullaby in the back of his brain.

  And Mary was bringing the helmet down on his head and dogging it down fast. His hands were wrapped in gloves again and precious oxygen was flowing into his mask. His suit was taking on pressure, pressing all sorts of squishy stuff against his skin.

  Oh, joy.

  But the real joy was the fresh air on his face.

  He opened his mouth wide and let it flow freely in. He could feel it coming in the other end as well. What a mess he’d be.

  “You did it,” Mary shouted on net. “You did something. Matt says the station cut off like someone had hit a light switch. One minute there was stuff causing his board to show red, the next minute it was back to being dead air. Now, we need to get out of here fast. Whatever was protecting this place from the magnetic storm around it is not there anymore.”

  Du and Mary unstrapped Ray from the obelisk and aimed him at the door Lek already had pried open. They basically flew Ray out of the control center, down the two ramps and out the long dock, touching down on surfaces only long enough to push off again.

  That was mighty kind of them, because Ray was starting to feel pain in every inch of his body. It didn’t matter what it was, it felt full-on agony.

  The shuttle was there waiting for them. The Second Chance had pulled back in close. But it was boosting out of the gas giant’s orbit at 1.5 gees even as they dragged Ray from the shuttle.

  They shucked him out of his suit. Not all the mess in there was brown. He’d bled as well from several embarrassing orifices. The medics bundled him up, and, as he expected, put him in a chamber to slowly bring him up to the proper pressure.

  Mattim called him from the bridge.

  “You okay?” was his first question.

  “As good as any soldier has a right to expect after he does a damn-fool stunt like that.”

  “That saved us all,” Matt added.

  “We headed for Savannah?” was Ray’s response to the praise.

  “We sure ain’t hanging around here, old man. Yes, Savannah will be our next stop.”

  “Okay, but Matt, digging around stuff left by the Three is going to be dangerous.”

  “You noticed.”

  “Yes, even an old soldier can notice that. We need those three kids from Santa Maria who worked with me out here. It’s too risky to go into this kind of stuff without someone with their commlink.”

  “How do you think their parents will take to the idea of their having to do something like you just did?”

  “Not well,” Ray admitted. “Still, we need to ask. If I hadn’t been there, your entire exploration team would be dead.”

  “Not to mention my ship if that thing had decided to vanish my engines or my bridge.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Maybe we humans need to stay home in bed?” the starship captain said.

  “What are the chances of that?” answered the retired soldier, now politician.

  “Slim to none. I’ll advise your wife of what just happened and send along your suggestion that exploration ships that intend to mess with the stuff left by the Three need to have either you or one of the kids.”

  “Could you go easy on how close we came to almost getting killed?”

  “You want your smart bride to read it, or read it between the lines?”

  Ray made a face. “She is smart, isn’t she?”

  “Which begs the question why she married you.”

  “Too true. Okay, report it as it came down and I’ll batten down the hatches for the blowback I deserve, and maybe she can get us some reinforcements.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Ray lay back in the chamber, breathing in the nice air, and thought about how Rita would take to his latest stunt. They must have given him something because he fell asleep mulling that unpleasantness.

  FIFTEEN

  RUTH STUDIED THE farm reflected in the glasses she wore.

  The picture came from a gossamer and tiny observation vehicle she had launched an hour ago by simply waving her hand out the window of the car as she sped down the expressway.

  It had fit in her hand, weighing maybe twenty grams. In the sunlight, it had powered up and flown right out of her palm. Neat. Like some invisible bee.

  Ruth could get to like this job.

  Her “bee” had checked out the other two possibilities Alice had shown her a few days back. As expected, they were legitimate research centers, supporting the French-Catholic or Palestinian-Moslem farmers who kept the produce flowing into Petrograd.

  Someone, about a hundred years back, had gotten together quite a collection of Earth’s refuse and unwanted. Ruth scowled; no doubt they’d done it at cut-rate prices, too.

  She was developing a distinct dislike for the folks running this place.

  Take that fellow the kids called the Bear. He’d been all over her the last couple of days. She’d had to pick the kids up at a different place every day, taking a new route to lose him and his cab.

  Becky had put Ruth in touch with the embassy’s chauffeurs; they’d offered her tips on how to lose a tail. The kids, however, had been her best advice.

  Ruth now knew paths and alleys that the chauffeurs just shook their heads at.

  And to help the kids in juggling different pickup sites, Ruth had gotten Alice a commlink of her own. The girl had almost cried.

  “But now Major Barbara won’t let me use hers.”

  “You’ve got your own,” Ruth had answered, missing the point entirely.

  “But if I don’t have to go to her to use her link, she won’t . . . I won’t . . .”

  Ruth began to see the problem. “I bet if you ask the Major if you can teach the other kids how to use a link, and tell her you’ll sit with them to make sure they use it right, that you can use this link and other kids can use hers.”

  It had worked. At night now, Alice spent as much time as she wanted reading, listening, and learning.

  And three other kids were taking turns where before it had been only Alice.

  A small victory, but even small ones were worth celebrating on a place like Savannah.

  Ruth glanced to the right, blinked three times. The picture on her glasses zoomed in on “The Farm,” as Alice called it.

  Unlike the other areas that had row upon row of crops that were familiar to Ruth, this place had a lot of different crops. None of them were familiar from her growing up on Hurtford Corner. A few looked familiar . . . from her time as a slave growing drugs on Riddle.

  But there were so many. Some stood tall. Other were low to the ground. Some were bushy. Still others were spindly.

  Ruth had her computer compare the crops to any that existed in a normal agribusiness database.

  None came up.

  She switched to her Drug Enforcement database.

  Several plants came up immediately. Others might be related to known plants.

  Ruth smiled. She’d found the experimental station
she was hunting for.

  Now, what to do about it?

  She pulled off the expressway three exits down; she needed to refuel. She gave the kids money to buy food from the station. The kids looked wide-eyed at what was offered and timidly selected burgers and chips.

  Ruth had them add a drink and paid for all using cash.

  She had her credit chit, but this close to a hot site, she wasn’t leaving any tracks.

  As it turned out, that didn’t matter.

  A cab rolled into the station. The Bear glanced around from behind the wheel. When he saw her, he smiled.

  The Bear’s smile was downright nasty.

  Ruth turned away.

  That was a big mistake.

  She heard the squeal of brakes and tires before she turned back to spot the two black police cars that had just charged in. Four men were out of the cars in a second and racing for her.

  “What’s the matter?” she said.

  They didn’t answer, just hit her, knocked her to the ground and started kicking.

  The security team at the embassy made sure she had seen the video on self-protection. When she was knocked down, she went down on her butt. Once down, she did her best to cover her face with her arms and to roll with the kicks.

  When a boot slammed into her stomach, she rolled with the boot. If she spotted a boot heading for her, she started rolling away from it. That even worked out well for the unseen boots slamming into her back. As often as not, she was rolling away from them before they could build up a good hit.

  It still hurt like hell.

  Thank the heavens Trouble had brought something new home last night.

  An armored corset.

  It wasn’t very sexy, but it was supposed to stop a bullet.

  It did seem to soften the force of the kicks.

  Ruth rolled and thanked all that was good and holy for the new armor.

  And punched the locator beacon and panic button between her breasts.

  How long will it take a Marine reaction team to get here or wherever they intend to take me?

  One roll let her glance at the children.

  Tiny had dropped her drink and stuffed her fist in her mouth even as tears rolled down her cheeks. Alice Blue Bonnet had one hand on Tiny’s arm, the other wrapped around Mouse, and was dragging them back around the corner toward the restrooms.

  They’d stepped away to go to the bathroom, thank God, and been there when the Bear drove up.

  Tiny was right to force her fist in her mouth. Now was no time for the kids to be seen or heard.

  The kicks kept coming.

  Is that all they’re here for? Just to kick me to death?

  Ruth had done what she was supposed to do, but it wasn’t enough, not with four strong men doing everything they could to kick the stuffing out of her.

  Her mouth was bleeding; she could taste the blood. Blood from somewhere on her forehead was flowing down into her eyes. She wished she could just pass out, but to lose consciousness would be to leave herself helpless under those boots.

  What did the kids call them? Crushers.

  They had that right.

  Another car gunned into the station and came to a squealing halt.

  Did these four guys need reinforcements to beat up one lone woman?

  I’m a Marine’s wife, not a Marine, fellows.

  Suddenly, one of her assailants was on the deck beside her, holding his arm and screaming.

  On second glance, and Ruth had to admit, her vision wasn’t all that clear, the fellow’s arm was twisted all wrong.

  Since she hadn’t been kicked for a second or three, Ruth risked rolling over. One of her attackers was backed up against the gas pump. Someone familiar was pummeling the black-clad thug.

  That someone was familiar, but wrong. Oh, he was out of uniform.

  Ruth could now spot a Marine a mile away. It must be the strange way her eyes were working that she needed three blinks to recognize this one.

  Bear was out of his car now. No, the door hadn’t been opened; Gunny had hauled him out through the window and was doing really horrible things to his face.

  Ruth would have smiled at that, but it hurt to move any muscle.

  The two other black boots had been turned into a pretzel by a woman Marine. They’d made the mistake of swinging on her. She’d used their swings to wrap them up and tie them in a knot.

  Almost, Ruth laughed at that.

  Almost. It hurt to even breathe, much less laugh.

  Now the woman Marine was bending over Ruth. “They get you too bad?”

  “They got me good,” Ruth admitted.

  “We’ll get you back to the embassy, dearie.”

  “First, the kids. You got to get them out of here. We can’t let the crushers see them, or they’ll kill them.”

  “I hear you, dearie. None of these shits are looking at anything just now. Gunny, she’s got the kids with her. Can I drive her car and the kids back where they belong?”

  “You do that, Debbie. I think our job here is done. We’ll take her back to the infirmary.”

  And a moment later, Gunny and the other Marine gently lifted Ruth into the backseat of a large sedan. Debbie corralled the kids and got them into Ruth’s rental, and all of them were driving away before any of the local toughs finished their beauty sleep.

  Gunny drove, leaving the other Marine to begin first aid on Ruth. He had her take a painkiller, then gingerly began cleaning the blood away.

  “I’m seeing funny,” Ruth told him.

  “Concussions is way above my pay grade, ma’am. You’ll have to talk to the doc about that.”

  “How did you get here so fast, Gunny?”

  “Your husband, ma’am. The captain, he’s been worried about you getting in over your head. He kind of gently suggested that we might want to take a drive in the country. He said you wouldn’t much like it if you spotted us, so we hung well back. Maybe too far back, ma’am. Sorry we took so long to get here after you hit your panic button.”

  “I’m alive, Gunny, and very grateful to you for that privilege. I don’t think those guys intended for me to be alive when they finished. I expected to be hauled in when they started, but they just kept kicking and never stopped.”

  “Yeah, we kind of noticed that, ma’am.”

  “You won’t be in any trouble, will you?”

  “Not if they know what’s good for them,” had an evil grin in it. Ruth really regretted not being able to see Gunny’s evil grin, but the pain meds were taking over. Her eyes were drooping, and she felt so sleepy. The pain was getting further and further away, so she let herself float on the relief as it came in.

  SIXTEEN

  MARY RODRIGO, CHIEF of Security for the Wardhaven explorer ship Second Chance, stepped from the shuttle into the bright Savannah sunshine.

  A quick glance around showed her that no one had come out to greet the arriving dignitary. She considered that strange. Ray Longknife had killed President Urm and ended the Unity War. Mary figured everyone would want to turn out and give the man a cheer.

  She’d been warned Savannah was different. It was already showing its colors.

  Ray exited the shuttle now that she’d cleared him to. He did his own look around. Except for the usual workers on the landing field, it was pretty much empty.

  “I guess arriving a day late helped us miss the party,” Ray said as he nodded to Mary and her team of former Marines, now guards and whatever an explorer ship needed dirtside.

  Mary shrugged. As soon as the Second Chance finished this job of running Ray out to Savannah and back to Wardhaven, they’d be off to the great unknown, opening up space and planets for humanity.

  Mary liked that.

  A black limo arrived, flanked by two big black SUVs fore and aft. Mary ushered Ray to the limo. She intended to ride shotgun. Du would take the lead SUV.

  Then the trouble started.

  Two more SUVs drove up and disgorged a dozen heavyweight uglies. All sported machin
e pistols slung over their shoulders with their hands near the triggers.

  The one that sported a pair of silver captain’s bars strutted up to Mary. “We got laws here. No guns. Youse guys got guns. Youse got to turn them over to us.”

  Before Mary could say a word, Ray stepped up. “These people are my honor guard. They are all members of the Wardhaven Marine Corps and as such, have every right to bear arms.”

  Mary was, indeed, an officer in the Wardhaven Marine Corps Reserve. Apparently, Ray was activating her commission.

  Would that solve this little problem?

  Apparently it didn’t for the big police captain. He said, “I don’t see them in no uniforms.”

  “They’ve been seconded to the Wardhaven Explorer Corps to provide security for space exploration,” the colonel said evenly.

  Mary was wearing a merchant marine gray shipsuit. She pointed at the captain’s bars on her collar. She’d thought they were just a way to show her seniority among the troops. Now she saw the wisdom of it.

  “We’ll see about that,” the big ugly with rank said, but he didn’t move to disarm Mary’s security team.

  Smart move on his part.

  A second later, another pair of big black SUVs drove up and disgorged a dozen fully armed Marines in dress blue and reds. The Marines deployed in a tactical circle, not at all like candy-assed toy soldiers. Their captain reported to Ray.

  “Sir, I’m Captain Tordon,” the officer said as he saluted. “The embassy sent me to, ah, reinforce your own security team.”

  Whoever this dude was, he was a quick study. Mary liked that in a guy.

  He also looked familiar.

  He was eyeing her as much as he could without ignoring the visiting dignitary.

  Recognition came to both of them at the same second.

  “Trouble?” Mary said.

  “Mary!” Trouble replied through his usual mischievous grin.

  “You two know each other?” Ray asked.

  “We were both on the same worthless rock in the recent unpleasantness,” Trouble provided.

  “Then all three of us were,” Ray added. “Unfortunately for me and my brigade, I was on the opposite side.”

  “Well, we can’t all be perfect, sir,” Trouble said.